The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may or may not constitute prior art.
Known front wheel drive motor vehicle configurations can include positioning a transmission in front of an engine to allow the engine and transmission space envelope to be incorporated partially between the vehicle driver and passenger spaces. This permits an overall vehicle length to be reduced. Known configurations to accomplish this arrangement, however, require the transmission to be driven backwards with respect to the direction of rotation of the engine. Where existing engines and transmissions are used, this configuration results in thrust loads from helical gears in the transmission and drive train being reversed from normal arrangements, which is undesirable. Designs to resolve this issue have added large diameter gears, multiple stacks of gears, or combinations of multiple gears plus a chain to drive the gears.
Accordingly, there is room in the art for a gearbox design that accommodates a transmission forward arrangement with minimal gear changes.